Do you carry reloads or factory ammo in your ccw???

Active Member

got a question to see what most folks here use in their carry weapon......do you use your personal reloads or do you use factory made ammo in your ccw....since i reload all my ammo i usually carry my personal loads that i know my particular carry weapon likes to eat and also performs well with.....i know theres been lots of debate on the court system taking a bias stance towards a victim that was shot by a person with his ccw and his personal loads...being that the personal ammo was used for the intention of absolutely killing the victim....but what difference does it make if i used my loads or factory FEDERAL HST loads...the effect would surely seem the same....would just like to get some opinions from most here...should i carry my own loads tailored to my gun or should i just go out and buy a box of ammo???....its been so long since ive done that...

Member

Only factory for 2 reasons:
1. what you mention about liability. I've heard of such about pre-mediatation making personal people killing loads used against someone.
2. I've been re-loading just over a year now and completed multiple 1000's of rounds. I had a box of primers, store bought, not through internet, be defective taking 2 or more strikes to fire. Of course, the only way I knew this happened was through firing them. Others told me they must have been exposed to moisture somewhere. This box was mixed in with over 1000 rounds so I would sure hate to discover one dud when most needed. I use this now for target practive with my Sig as I can pull trigger multiple times. But, I CC a Glock.

Well-Known Member

Carry the ammo that you are most comfortable with. Find what has acceptable terminal ballistics to you and what functions reliably in your gun. If the best ammo is your own handloads, carry that. Any lawyer worth crap will not let that affect you in court.

Active Member

reloads or factory it all depends on the prosecutor and how much money you have to pay for a defense.
What I mean is this say you get prosecuted for a shooting that was justified,,,,
You honor Mr so and so is a killer no if&#8217;s and&#8217;s or butt&#8217;s
He in not a police officer or in the military yet he went to such and such school to learn
How to use his gun in a manner that cops or military would he even went as far as to go to the police and find out what kind of ammo they use so he could use it as well,
Your honor it is obvious that this guy is nothing but a wanna be cop who just wanted to get himself into a situation that he could shoot some one just like a cop or a member of the military

Well-Known Member

the legal implications should be utterly and completed ignored- a shoot is justified or it isn't, and any ambulance-chasing lawyer will come up with whatever he can to use against you- if it's not "ultra killer atomic handloads," it'll be the fact that you had gotten professional training to "feed your seething, homicidal desire to shoot somebody, anybody."

i don't handload, so i can't really say much with authority.. but i do know that pound for pound, reloads malfunction a lot more often than quality factory loads. i'm sure there's master loaders out there that can pump out copious piles of ultra reliable ammunition- but are you one of 'em?

with the exceptionally performing JBHPs we have available to us right now, i just don't see how you can make something "better" yourself.

Active Member

for what it is worth, I went to my local police office, found out what they carry, and use it. Unfortunately I still live in CA so I can not carry here, but it is my HD load and when I leave the State, I carry what my home town cops carry. I fully function tested it first of course.

The theory is this eliminates any question about the choice of ammo, if the local LEO carry it, then it is not a special killer load, it is what the gov't decided was thecorrect response to a deadly threat.

New Member

This is a great quesion, in that it nearly made me second guess my personal defense ammo, as far as the liability issue. Right now I'm loaded with Winchester Ranger SXT's. I went with "law enforcement" ammo for quality. Bad idea? Maybe. Just another coin toss I guess.

Well-Known Member

If you have to shoot in self defence you can expect to be pilloried by shysters no matter what you're shooting. With factory ammo the results are (theoretically at least) repeatable. If your legal defence depends on the fact that you fired at point-blank range the ability to replicate the evidence left by the shooting could be of great importance. Yes, a clever lawyer may get you off, but at $400/hr or so the less they have to say the better for you. Reloading is cheaper for practice, but I carry factory ammo. If I had nothing else, or if I had to shoot range ammo due to circumstances then reloads beat a pocket knife. If civilization has collapsed and the ravaging hoardes are at the door, then I would be glad to have reloads.

Active Member

Member

When I first got my Beretta 92 I ran Winchester RN's and then switched to Remington RN's in the same day and I was lucky to get more than 2 rounds off before it would jam with the Remington. Since I have fired many more boxes reliably but refuse to shoot Remington. As for the actual topic: primary mag is factory ammo and secondary is reloads I did of 250 rounds thus far without a hitch

Well-Known Member

Member

I called my local Police dept. and Sheriffs office to ask what they issue/recommend. My personal preference is to carry what the locals do.... that way if something happens and I have to defend myself/family/friends/anyone, I am carrying what the local law enforcement uses (as long as it is reliable in my CC). I use my reloads for practice and comp.

Well-Known Member

ok what about Factory reloads? I have a 50 round box of federal hollow points.. I have a few of my mags filled with them, but not the ones that are actually in my gun... would you carry factory reloads?

BüchsenmacherBronze Vendor

I would never trust my life with factory ammo! All name brand, machine manufactured ammo manufactureres have a bad day, hour, employee, etc.

My home brew is 100&#37; all the time. Every once and awhile you get a batch of slightly harder primers, but to counter any of that problem I have install a slightly stronger hammer spring in my carry guns. 100% boom !

Active Member

i carry handloads,i probably pay closer attention to my loading than the damn factory pumping them out by the thousands. ive had factory remington 30 06 ammo fail , two in one box.my friend had 3.another thing to consider is how long has someone been carrying that same ammo in their clip?.have they cleaned their weapon and left too much oil in it? there is tonnes of if's but to me,i'd rather carry something i put together.

Well-Known Member

i carry handloads,i probably pay closer attention to my loading than the damn factory pumping them out by the thousands. ive had factory remington 30 06 ammo fail , two in one box.my friend had 3.another thing to consider is how long has someone been carrying that same ammo in their clip?.have they cleaned their weapon and left too much oil in it? there is tonnes of if's but to me,i'd rather carry something i put together.

Click to expand...

factory ammo usually fails in batches.. a misconception people have is that if multiple rounds from one box fail, surely the manufacturers must suck. the reality is that a manufacturer can put out 50,000,000 quality rounds of ammunition, then a batch of 20,000 that's got poorly seated primers, bad powder, under/over-sized neck, etc.. consistent. so if you get a failure from a batch, note the batch number and watch your ammo. if you get more than one, you should notify the manufacturer, so they can track batches. if they get multiple complaints about a particular batch No., they can take appropriate action.

i've fired somewhere in the neighborhood of 50,000 rounds of federal xm193 in the last decade- i've never had any problems with it- at least not any bad cases. but if you search the internet, you'll find that there have been a number of bad batches of xm193 over the years. with millions of rounds flying our the doors, serving tens of thousands of private citizens and hundreds of LEAs, it's bound to happen. federal will take care of you if you're in possession of an official "bad batch."

its even rarer for a quality manufacturer to put out bad batches of duty ammo. it absolutely ruins a manufacturers reputation to put out bad duty ammo, and have a cop get hurt or a failure to put down a badguy.. they do double QC on that stuff.

WELCOME!

Northwest Firearms provides a place for gun owners of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho a place to converse,
organize, learn, educate, trade, and most importantly, work together to preserve our Second Amendment rights.

Participation is completely free and registration takes only a few moments.

About Northwest Firearms

We believe the 2nd Amendment is best defended through grass-roots organization, education, and advocacy centered around individual gun owners. It is our mission to encourage, organize, and support these efforts throughout Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.